Bahner community reacts after historic St. John’s Catholic Church struck by lightning, destroyed by fire

BAHNER, Mo. (KMIZ)

A 185-year-old Bahner church was burned to the ground after getting struck by lightning early Tuesday morning. 

St. John’s Catholic Church was struck by lightning around 5 a.m. which set the church ablaze. The Wildlife Ridge Winery was one of the first to see the flames and called 911. 

The building was made of old wood which made the fire spread fast.

“By the time the fire department got here, it was collapsing in on itself. It burned very fast,” Micheal Bahner, who got married, had his kids baptized and his daughter married at St John’s, told ABC 17 News. “That was old wood, it was dry as a bone. It got to the point they just let it go ahead and burn because there wasn’t any saving it.” 

No injuries have been reported, but word spread fast through the community.

"My sister, she got hit pretty hard with the storm where she lived and then she sent me a pretty blunt message that said ‘Bahner burnt,’” said April Pilante, who attended St. John’s as a child. 

St. John’s had been a part of the community since 1838. In 1859, the parish opened a school, which still stands next to the remnants of the church.

Many people in the town had relatives who attended church there. During the civil war Southern sympathizers vandalized the church property, throwing an organ out of the loft. 

Next to the church is an outhouse, which residents say was frequently used by travelers going to Kansas City or the Lake of the Ozarks. 

It also housed 42 resident pastors dating back to 1880. In 2013, 33 families were registered to the parish. 

Pilante says that services were tight-knit and that everyone stayed afterward to talk to each other. Some of her fondest memories of the church included the annual ice cream social and messing around in the pews with her brother. 

“You can see the metal tiles. If you ask my brother, he can tell you how many tiles there where and how many squares because during church -- especially as a young child -- you would get distracted and he would count the squares,” Pilante said. “I remember one time, we had a visiting priest come out and jokingly ask ‘How many tiles are up there and my brother spoke up.'” 

On Tuesday night, a prayer service was held at the school building. Residents flocked to St. John’s to celebrate the memories made at the more-than-century-old church. 

Michael Bahner said he was wearing the same clothes he wore the last time he went to mass: Saturday night. 

“My son’s the organist, has been for 21 years. There's nothing left. She [Michael Bahner’s wife] made a quilt for my my son’s keyboard. It burned up. It just struck her just before I came down,“ Michael Bahner said.

"I have a 3-year-old and he goes, 'Mommy, why are you crying?' And I said, 'Sometimes, mommies just cry," Pilante said. "You just expect something like this to be in your life for forever. The building was still in great condition. So there was no reason for it not to be in your life for years and years to come."